Friday, 6 June 2008

There are tonnes of recipes for pasta in cookbooks, magazines and on the Internet. Pasta is a very popular dish around the world, partly because it is so versatile. Usually I tend to favour pasta with cream sauce but there are times when I feel like something lighter but still filling. That's when the classic dish of spaghetti aglio e olio really hits the spot.

Spaghetti aglio e olio is a dish seldom found on restaurant menus, because it is too simple and unimpressive. The name of the dish literally means spaghetti oil and garlic and that's all the essential ingredients. As with every simple recipe, this dish really relies on quality ingredients so make sure you use really good extra virgin olive oil and fresh garlic. I had some sundried tomatoes to be used up and decided to add them to the dish too, giving it a summery twist that tasted pure Mediterranean. The spaghetti is slippery with fruity olive oil and thoroughly infused with garlic and sundried tomatoes. Extremely tasty especially if you love garlic. Another bonus with this dish (do you need another?) is that it is super quick to prepare, taking just as long as the pasta takes to cook.

Method: 1. Cook the spaghetti in a large pan of boiling water until al dente. 2. When the pasta is a few minutes away from cooked, heat a large heavy based frying pan and add a good glug of oil. Over medium heat, gently fry the garlic, sundried tomatoes and chilli flakes until the garlic is lightly golden. Be careful not to burn the garlic otherwise it will turn bitter. Turn off the heat. 3. Drain the spaghetti and add to the pan with the chopped parsley. Mix well with the garlic and tomato oil. The heat from the freshly cooked spaghetti will help the pasta soak up all the flavours. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper and tuck in!

There are always plenty of fabulous recipes on the Presto Pasta Nights weekly round up. My entry for this week could well be the simplest amongst them! This week's guest host for Presto Pasta Nights is Kevin from Closet Cooking.

It is too bad that restaurants do not serve "simple" pasta dishes like this as they are some of the best. I really like using sundried tomatoes in pasta and this sounds like a perfect sundried tomato pasta! Thanks for sharing it with Presto Pasta Nights!

Happy Cook: The sundried tomatoes add a lot of flavour, definitely worth trying. Make sure they have been reconstituted/soaked in oil though.

Veggiegirl: Aww thanks :)

Noble Pig: Also great when I'm starving for lunch with little food in the fridge!

Amarillo: Hope you get to cook this soon!

Kevin: Thanks! I've amended the Pesto Pasta Nights link.

Anonymous: Mmm avocado, not thought of that. Got to try it sometime, thanks for the tip.

Chuck: Thanks for visiting. I do love your website, hope to see some pasta dish up there soon!

Didally: I suppose spaghetti aglio e olio is considered somewhat 'exotic' and upmarket in Singapore? ;) I can't imagine paying $10-12 (not sure how much pasta would cost in restaurants these days!) for something so simple though!

To save some time and add really great flavor, you can use sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil. That way you don't need to reconstitute the tomatoes before tossing them in, and you can use the oil that the tomatoes are jarred in in place of the olive oil to get maximum flavor. That's how I usually make this dish!

I'm the cook wannabe who always burned the garlic before I could pronounce "aglio el olio" so I've resigned to just having this dish when I eat out at restaurants that have them. Lately though I've discovered the wonders of store bought fried minced garlic and garlic flavored olive oil. I just toss them all together with salt, chili flakes, some chopped basil leaves and (thanks to your post) finely chopped sundried tomatoes while the pasta is hot. I let it sit for 5 minutes before devouring it.

This is one of my favorites especially with the sun-dried tomatoes. A local authentic Italian restaurant nearby also adds some chopped walnuts which add to the texture. Great simple recipe and excellent photo!